I don’t recall seeing any note of which system this comic is using, or if it’s using a game system at all. Really, there’s precious little in real life that means you have to have a dump stat, or that says everyone’s sum total of stats is the same.

It could be Byron just won the genetic lottery, or rolled a high wisdom if you will, and happens to have a strong willpower. Alternately, he could have spent the time he was recovering from physical exercise exercising his wits and vice versa.

So I see all kinds of “When’s he gonna lose it? We Want Berserk!” re: Byron, but this comic strongly reinforces the impression I’ve had for a while: Byron is not trained as a berserker, he’s naturally one and this fact terrifies him. Remember that scene of the trashed village, with corpses all over? My guess is, he did that as a teen, and when he came to his senses he was crippled with guilt. He’s got “…the Berserker” on his name as a constant reminder, personal mark of shame, not as a job description. He’s spent decades since then training himself to keep his cool, to avoid the rage. And that’s the only reason he doesn’t snap Syr’Nj’s neck in panel three.

That was my thinking too. It doesn’t change the fact I wanted to see him flip out for ages.

As counterpoint, it may be that the slaughter of the village was what caused him to flip out, or that it caused him to flip out and he couldn’t stop even when all the attackers were dead. We can’t say for sure, but I agree with your general point.

What are you all talking about?? Indy is CLEARLY a 1st ed Monk! He has a little bit of thief skills, and can trigger massive traps but take no damage with a single saving through. He can also fall great distances with no ill effects!

Yep–you beat me to the comment. Ever since Byron’s first appearance, his thoughts have been in red boxes like that. I think I more interesting question, if you would like to discuss the symbolism of speech/thought containers, how about the white-on-black ones he uses before coming to his senses?

I think we can safely say that those are actual noises Byron makes (groaning and the like)
OK, good point, it probably is Byron’s, but in my mind I imagine this horde of angry voices uncontrollably chanting “Kill.” over and over.
I wonder if the cultist a catalyst or a puppeteer to Byron’s beserking.

And I went up there, I said, “Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL.”

And I started jumpin’ up and down yelling, “KILL, KILL,” and he started jumpin’ up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, “KILL, KILL.” And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me,sent me down the hall, said, “You’re our boy.”

My impression is that they are in fact the ones who can trigger his rage. And he was killing her before he snapped out of it. And she just realized why he is called a Berserker. And possibly, she just realized how much she means to him, if he finally managed to stop it before killing her.

And next time we see them, Syr’nj is smacking Byron upside the head. “What the HELL was that?!?”

Since she may or may not have “heard” all the kill commands.

I mean, for Syr, what did that look like? Certainly she can deduce that the cultist caused Byron’s, uh, outburst, but she’s likely to either demand details (as his physician, you know) or she’s going to be very freaked out and not want him near her for a while. Just in case.

BTW it does not look like his hands have actually contacted her throat, in panel 2, so I don’t think he hurt her. Unless he bruised her wrist when he grabbed her to get her out of there.

No, mate. I’m a lifelong atheist and I still have an idea of the difference between a “mainstream” and a “non-mainstream” god. There’s no clear definition (and it’s obviously a culture based decision), but common sense comes into it somewhere.

Byron: Damn that Cultist!
Syr’nj: What was his name?
Byron: Bill. We must find him… We must KILL… BILL.
Syr’nj: (reaching into her bag) I have just the jumpsuit… *zziiiip*
(Would make for a bad-ass drawing I must say…)

One thing you guys haven’t asked yet, what was Syr’nj hearing in her head?
If the Cultist was trying to get them to kill each other, I wouldn’t be surprise to see a dagger from Syr’nj’s Bag-O-Plenty sticking out from Byron side in the next page.

Killing has such finality to it, it seems like there’d be less resistance to less…brutal suggestions. Perhaps the cultist should have started with “maim” or “wound”, or really scaled it down and tried “poke” as a warm up.

OK, this is something I’ve been thinking about that I don’t think anyone’s pointed out yet: There has been some speculation on the meaning of the Cultist’s “fairy dust”–now, is it me, or in the last panel, after Byron and Syr’nj’s exit from the tent, is the background distinctly un-town-like?

Love the comic, guys–I was finally inspired to comments since the comments section is always fun to read. Also wanted to remark that as a former gamer who never liked and rarely played D&D, I’m not reading this in gaming terms or wondering if it’s meant to parallel any actual game–I’m just enjoying it as a good story with some anachronistic/internet/meta humor.

Actually, it looks to me like Byron didn’t actually choke Syringe. If you look at the panels, looks like he’s about to – but he manages to pull his hand back just short of it. So at least there’s that.

Of course, being a warrior at all takes tremendous mental willpower: we saw this with Frigg, to, and her resisting torture so adamantly.
Secondly, someone recommended “training his wits.” While Byron is obviously intelligent, intelligence does not willpower make. There are a huge amount of beta scientists. INT doesn’t equal WIS doesn’t equal CHA.
(And the D&D system has some huge incongruences if you apply it to real life ™, which this comic seems to be using as it’s default platform (save magic). For example, I’m an above-average endurance athlete. This should indicate that I have a high Constitution, right? Well, I’m also very prone to stomach aches and cramps, things that would be easily shaken off by a nice Fort. save. So, you know, odd…)

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